This book contains a series of articles, written by international experts in the fields of intellectual disability and quality of life, that explore a broad range of issues that impact on the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities and their families. The book commences with a general discussion on defining quality of life and family quality of life and the appropriateness of using these constructs in the field of intellectual disability, and is followed by an analysis on the effects of living arrangements and employment on quality of life. The book concludes with discussions on the unique issues facing children with intellectual disabilities and people living in developing countries and the effect these issues have upon their quality of life.

With the continuing increased incidence rate of autism spectrum disorder over the decades, there are increasing numbers of adults with autism who require varying levels of lifelong care, typically from parents. It is necessary to understand parents' lived experience of lifelong caregiving, and how their own aging process further impacts life quality. Furthermore, greater understanding of stressors, resources, appraisals, and coping among parent caregivers of children with "high functioning autism" who are transitioning into young adulthood is particularly necessary as services, needs, and experiences for both are nuanced due to functional status, deficits in the service system, and demographic disparities. Given lifespan aspects past research has not addressed, the study focused on development of a measure of parent accumulated stressors, and on interrelations of stressors, perceived social support, future time perspective, burden, satisfaction, and coping on health-related quality of life and meaning in life among 28 parents of young adults with autism. Although proposed quantitative analyses were not completed due to sample size, qualitative analyses on parent experiences and stressors revealed common themes of concern for child's future quality of life, complicated dynamics of providing help to their child overtime, and increased stress related to others' lack of understanding of their child. In total, 10 themes and multiple subthemes were identified in relation to aspects of accumulated stressors. Findings suggest parent stress with this specific population is complex, manifesting in nuanced ways at different life stages. Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are also explored, and implications for scientific advancement and clinical services are discussed.

Family members provide the majority of care for individuals with disabilities in the United States. Recognition is growing that family caregiving deserves and may require societal support, and evidence-based practices have been established for reducing stress associated with caregiving. Despite the substantial research literature on family support that has developed, researchers, advocates and professionals have often worked in separate categorical domains such as family support for caregiving for the frail elderly, for individuals with mental illness, or for people with development disabilities. Family Support and Family Caregiving across Disabilities addresses this significant limitation through cross-categorical and lifespan analyses of family support and family caregiving from the perspectives of theory and conceptual frameworks, empirical research, and frameworks and recommendations for improvements in public policy. The book also examines children with disabilities, children with autism, adults with schizophrenia, and individuals with cancer across the life cycle. This book was published as a two-part special issue in the Journal of Family Social Work.

Combining a modern, data-analytic perspective with a focus on applications in the social sciences, the Third Edition of Applied Regression Analysis and Generalized Linear Models provides in-depth coverage of regression analysis, generalized linear models, and closely related methods, such as bootstrapping and missing data. Updated throughout, this Third Edition includes new chapters on mixed-effects models for hierarchical and longitudinal data. Although the text is largely accessible to readers with a modest background in statistics and mathematics, author John Fox also presents more advanced material in optional sections and chapters throughout the book. Accompanying website resources containing all answers to the end-of-chapter exercises. Answers to odd-numbered questions, as well as datasets and other student resources are available on the author′s website. NEW! Bonus chapter on Bayesian Estimation of Regression Models also available at the author′s website.